Check-Up (28 weeks tomorrow)

So this morning I had my check- up the with the OB. My hubby was planning on being there, which kind of surprised me since it was just a routine check-up etc... but I was thrilled that he wanted to be there. However it wasn't in the cards for hubby to be there, he was out doing something for work and finished in plenty of time to make the appointment however he got stuck in traffic and missed the appointment:(  It's kind of weird since I wasn't counting on him being there but I was disappointed when he wasn't able to make it. Anyhoo like I said it was just the usual appointment, and all is well:)  YEAH!!! They are going to schedule me a consult with the anesthesiologist in the coming weeks, due to my heart condition, just a precaution no big deal. And get this I go back to the OB in TWO weeks!!!!!! YES I am on the 2 week schedule now:) WOW, hard to believe! I asked when my next ultrasound would be and he said not for another month:(  But I also asked him about the 4d ultrasound, when is the best time to have that done etc... and he said late 20 weeks/ early 30 weeks so basically any time now!!! YEAH, so we will be scheduling that soon too. WOW the 2nd trimester has seem to fly by, and I have a feeling the 3rd trimester is going to be the same way especially with how busy we will be and so much to do!

What to get? and other questions

So my good friend from College and my mom are having a baby shower for me in a couple of weeks. I am really looking forward to the shower but also a little nervous that not many people will show. I know that my friend and mom are putting a lot of effort into this special day. I really want to show my friend how much I appreciate her support as well as having this special day for me. So do you all have any ideas on what to get as a thank you for throwing me a baby shower?

On another note I really want to have some pregnancy/ baby bump pictures taken (professionally) however I am not sure when you typically have these pictures done. Need some input on when the best time to have these pictures done ?( I will be 28 weeks this Friday:)  Also I am not sure where to go, now I know you all don't live in the same town as me etc... however do you go to a photography company (por.trai.t  I.n.novat.ions)- that is where we take the kiddos for their pictures, we have been taking them to the same place since my daughter (first child) was 1 month old  or do you typically go to a professional photographer. I need some ideas, but also need to watch the budget!

In other news, the lovely rash is coming back- however not nearly as bad. I talked to my cousin who had the same rash with her first full term pregnancy and she had warned me it came back on her too! I am dealing with it and trying not to use the lovely Sa.rna lotion (although it does feel good and helps) because of the smell, my hubby says I smell like a nursing home- just lovely!!  I am still having swelling in my feet, mainly my left foot and when I have been on my feet a lot; however after the kiddos go to bed I prop my feet up and that helps:)  I go back to the OB on Thursday for my check-up not sure if I will have an ultrasound, hoping I do but kind of doubting it. I think starting with this appointment I will be seen more often as I enter the 3rd trimester which I think includes more ultrasounds:)  I am also going to talk to my doc about a 3d/4d ultrasound, I know they can be pricey however we have connections:)  My hubby's old boss (they still work together he is just no longer my hubby's boss etc...), his family owns an ultrasound business and we can get a 3d/4d ultrasound basically for free- all we have to do is give his old boss a 12 pk of his fav. beer:) So I am looking forward to having that done, hopefully soon.
Hope everyone is having a great week! Will update after my ob appointment on Thurs.
Not much else going on, we are staying busy, busy busy, and I was looking at the calendar for April and we have SO MUCH stuff going on, I have a feeling this month is going to fly by!

Learned a lesson

Well Saturday I learned a lesson! I learned that I need to take it easy and not try to jam so much into one day otherwise I will pay the price! Friday night my hubby worked later than planned and we missed the fish fry which I was looking forward to:( So Friday night we ended up staying in, however my niece spent the night, the kiddos LOVED LOVED that! Then Saturday I spent all day on the go! I started out taking all three kiddos to a local breakfast and play, then it was home for lunch, and back out with just the girls to a local bridal shop so that they could be fitted for their flower girl dresses (my daughter and niece are in my cousin's wedding this summer). Then my daughter was needing/ wanting a girls afternoon so we went to tarjay for some girls time shopping, she enjoyed a YUMMY treat from the coffee shop there (my niece went with her mom, they already had plans etc...). After having fun shopping we decided to go home a pick the boys up and continue our shopping at the mall, getting the kids some MUCH needed spring clothes and picking dinner up in the food court (because between my son who has food allergies and my daughter who is BEYOND picky it makes it easy to please everyone!). Then after the mall we headed to the big baby store to finish our registry, we had purposefully left things off the registry for the kids to pick out. My son LOVED the little gun/ tag shooter you zap the upc code with and my daughter enjoyed picking out all kinds of girly and mostly purple stuff -LOL!!! So by the time we got home and got the kids in bed I was EXHAUSTED to say the least and my poor feet were swollen and hurting! So lesson learned, need to take some time for myself to put my feet up and rest each day!
Thankfully Sunday I was able to take it easy, enjoy the b-e-a-utiful weather and take a nap too! I felt so much better by Sunday afternoon. The kiddos played outside and we enjoyed dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants with my parents! Then it was home to get ready for the week ahead.
The one "bad" moment in the weekend came when hubby decided it was time to put the crib together. He got the box opened and started pulling out all the pieces when I heard a LOUD Uh-OH! Yep we had gotten the crib delivered in the box about a month or so ago but that is as far as it had gone, it layed in the nursery waiting to be put together. Well when my hubby opened the box he found that the headboard was broken:(  So this morning I spent some time talking to the manufacture who was nice and said no biggie that their was a warranty and they would just ship a replacement part. Then about 30-45 minutes later I get a call from the manufacturer saying that they didn't have any replacement parts or that style crib in their warehouse and the tentative date for their arrival in the warehouse is the end of May!!!! I was heartbroken:(  I was so looking forward to getting her room together etc... but there really isn't much I can do, it is the crib I want and it was a good price etc.... So I just wait! Realistically she won't be in the crib for a while any ways because she will be in the bassinet etc... but it is just that I wanted everything ready etc.... So I am bummed about that!

First Day

HAPPY First Day of SPRING!!!!! I want to write more but I had an exhausting day yesterday and over did it:(  I am exhausted today, so I plan on taking it easy as much as I can. Hope you all enjoy the first day of Spring!

double digits

Look at my counter, yes I am now in double digits?! WOW! Now it seems like time is flying by! I have a kind of weird feeling about it all. I started off the pregnancy so scared (and there still is a little of that fear inside of me that something is going to go wrong etc....) and spent all of the first trimester and about half of the second trimester in complete fear and I guess denial that this was actually happening. I just want to say I LOVE LOVE LOVE being pregnant and I have a feeling I am really going to miss it, now don't get me wrong I am excited to meet this little girl and all the fun times ahead for our family. I just have a feeling that once I am no longer pregnant, that is going to be hard on me, after all I spent so many years trying to get to this point and I am not sure that I will ever experience it again.
Hope everyone is having a great St.Patty's Day- we are actually having some beautiful weather:)  My day was going GREAT until our bball team lost in the tourney this afternoon :(  It was a hard loss too, but then again when are they easy ones?!
HAPPY ST.PATRICK'S DAY to everyone!!!!!

Marathon Class

Saturday Hubby and I spent all day at the hospital in birthing classes. It was a long day (8:30am-5pm) however very informative. I have so much to think about, and plan for, but it also cleared up so much as well. I will say I am a little overwhelmed with the idea of the birth and then coming home to two very active little kiddos with a newborn and trying to recover from birth. It is kind of funny to say but this is something I have wanted for a very very long time, carrying a child etc... however I never really gave the actual birth much thought, I guess because it seemed like I would never get to that point. But now reality is starting to set in, and in about 15 weeks I will be giving birth to our daughter and that really scares me! Honestly I am not sure which way I will go, c-section, natural or with meds. Obviously we would only do c-section if it is medically necessary. As far as natural vs meds it will depend on what it actually feels like because I just don't know, I mean I hear what other woman say but they are not me.
Then their is the whole breast feeding. I want to try it, but they were honest and really got the point across that it is not an easy task in the class on Sat. I want to give it all my effort to try. The truth of the matter is I may not even be able to breast feed at all. Twelve almost 13 years ago I had a breast reduction and lift, and because of this I may not be able to breast feed. If I am able to, I worry about trying to breast feed for the first time and once again dealing with two little ones at home.
So you see why I am feeling a little overwhelmed by everything. I am trying to remind myself it is just like going to school/ college each semester we would get the syllabus that would layout everything that we would accomplish/ have to have completed within that semester and each semester I would be overwhelmed and question whether I could do it- however each semester I did!

still itching!!!

So I talked to the ob's office last week and they said to quit taking the vitamins (switch back to what I was taking), use hydrocortosone cream and take benadryl (whcih I can only take a night because it will make me sleepy). If the rash isn't any better by Friday to call back. So I was completely convinced that it was the vitamins however by Friday when the rash hadn't gotten any better, the hydrocortosone cream wasn't helping etc... I was beginning to think oh no what is this?! 
So I talked to the docs office on Friday and they wanted to send me to the dermatologist- March 31st!!! UGH! However after they went back and talked to the doc, the ob decided to see me today. So I went to the ob's office this morning, heard the baby's heartbeat:) and then found out what my rash is- it is called pupp. It is a rash that some pregnant woman get later on in their pregnancy (my cousin had it with her first pregnancy) and usually with their first pregnancy. Here is the kicker- there is nothing they can do for it!! Oh and he did say it's going to get worse and won't go away till after birth. OMG!!!! You don't understand how UGLY this rash is (it is on my lower arms, upper abdomen, and upper legs) and short sleeve shirt weather is just around the corner!  Not to mention how ITCHY it really is!!!! Don't get me wrong I am completely relieved that it is nothing worse, and that their is no harm to our baby or to myself.
THANKFULLY my cousin did recommend Sa.rna lotion which seems to help for a little bit with the itching, so I have to use it several times a day. So I am bummed that I have this nasty ugly rash:(

Itchy!!!!

I get these calls from a nurse once a month through my insurance carrier it is a program they have to "check-up" on me. Well she called the other day in the course of our conversation she asked about the pre-natal vitamins I am taking and if they included dha? I checked and of course they don't however I was going to have to buy some more this weekend anyways. So Sunday we headed to tarjay and I picked up a new pre-natal vitamin with dha- they are chewable and yummy! Yes I said yummy, they are gummies and they taste like candy- which is fabulous for a diabetic who can't have candy:) Anyhoo Monday I noticed that my belly was itching (more so than usual) but just chalked it up to my belly expanding and I had switched belly creams about a week ago to something that is more like vaseline- not real fond of it. Then yesterday I noticed that I had a rash all over my abdomen and chest area, again thinking that it is probably heat rash from the new cream and wearing my jeans etc... Well then last night I noticed after I had taken my vitamin the rash got worse and spread now it is on my arms, upper legs etc... it is soooooo itchy! I called the ob's office this morning and left a message and I am still waiting. I am hoping and praying that all it is, is the pre-natal vitamins and that their is something I can do about the itching because it is NOT fun:(
Anyone else have any issues or heard of issues like this???

Update

Yesterday I had to get lab work for my endocrinologist appointment next week. I go to a lab that is really close to my house and normal we are in and out with very little wait. Well NOT yesterday! My son was with me, and we walked into a standing room only waiting room. Then to top things off a guy several people in front of me passed out while having his blood drawn, so that slowed things down. Needless to say we did get out of there in under an hour. So given my track record on appointments this week I was nervous about going to my 24 week ob check-up not knowing what kind of wait I was going to get into. Needless to say the wait wasn't too bad at all. The appointment went really fast. I was not seeing my normal high risk ob because he is on vacation this week so I just saw another ob in the practice, she was nice but VERY quick! She asked me a few questions, listened to the baby's heartbeat (which she pick-up on right away without moving the doppler around!), it was measuring 150, then she measured me and asked if I had any questions. I swear I was probably with the doc maybe 5 minutes- CRAZY!!! I guess that is good, I am happy and relieved that everything is okay and going well, but I sure wish she would have taken some more time. I go back in 4 weeks and I am scheduled with my regular high risk ob:) I sure will be glad to see him.
So tomorrow I am going to attempt the eye doctor, joy joy! I am hoping that it goes smoothly.

FINALLY home:)

WHEW!!! What a morning/ afternoon I have had, and I am so relieved to be home with my feet up relaxing. I dropped my daughter off at school this morning, stopped at picked my mom up at her work and then we headed downtown for my fetal echo at the cardiologist. Well my appointment was at 9:30 and we got there right at 9:30; we sat and sat waiting to be called back which is never a good sign. Finally I get called back around 10:30 or so and they do the usual weight check, history and ekg (I went to my cardiologist that I normally see), then we are sent back to the waiting room to wait for the echo room. Thankfully we didn't have to wait an extremely long time this time because the waiting room was packed so we were standing. We get back in the echo room and I was talking to my son saying sit down in the chair so you can see your sister on the screen when the tech said "Oh no we aren't doing a fetal echo today." UM excuse me?! That is why I am here, what I am scheduled for. She tells me nope I am scheduled for an echo on me. UGH!!!! So she goes and gets the doc to talk to me, who proceeds to tell me they don't do fetal echos there anymore and that I will have to go to the hospital which is connected. I was FURIOUS at this point. (Yesterday when they called to confirm my appointment they confirmed for a fetal echo!!!) So I go ahead and get the echo on me because apparently I needed it to check on the function of my heart- everything was great thank goodness!! Then they send me over to the hospital for the fetal echo. By the time I get out of the doctors and are heading over to the hospital it is after 12noon and I am STARVING!!!! Of course I didn't bring my insulin pen because I never dreamed that I would be gone all morning! so I can't eat lunch, not that we had time (Lesson learned!). THANK goodness my mom decided to come to the appointment with me, because I don't know how I would have handle everything and my son by myself. I finally get registered at the hospital and get back for the fetal echo, and wouldn't you know it baby girl wasn't the most cooperative! LOL!!! At one point the doctor was about to get a good view that he wanted when she put her foot right in the way. They were able to get good views of her heart and everything looks perfect:) I was so relieved to have that done and know all is well, and I have to admit I enjoyed watching her on the screen.
When we were finally finally done, I headed to take my mom back to work and didn't really have time to go home to get my insulin and eat before having to pick up my daughter at 3pm. THANKFULLY my mom works at a doctors office and they happened to have a sample insulin pen (the kind I use!!), so I got that and stopped at had lunch in the car while my son had his nap. By that time it was time to get my daughter from school, so I picked her up, stopped and got her a treat and my son some lunch because by this time he was awake and starving. So we are FINALLY home at 4 in the afternoon and I am able to put my feet up and relax a little before fixing dinner. Talk about an exhausting and frustrating day, hoping the rest of the week goes better! I still have blood work tomorrow, obgyn appointment Thurs. and eye docs on Friday.